1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates generally to casino and lottery gaming, and more particularly to casino and lottery video game machines.
2. Background of the Invention
Slot Machines originally started as mechanical devices. About 25 years ago the manufacturers started adding micro chips to improve production and maintenance cost of the mechanical slot machines. The manufacturers used the micro chips to develop either video games that imitated the reels of a slot machine, or used micro chips to replace the mechanical apparatus that controlled the movement of the reels. These two different types of products thrived independently to the point that you can now find both types, i.e., reel slots and video slots, side-by-side in many casinos.
Reel games can be restricted by the number of reels and number of symbols on each reel. A casual player who makes infrequent visits to a casino may prefer the simplicity of a reel game, while a frequent slot player may prefer a video slot with multiple win combinations. Accordingly, in some cases, video slot machines can be computerized games with more pay combinations, which can be more complicated to comprehend than reel games. The industry has also developed bonus games which are added to the base game of either a reel or a video slot machine. Bonus games can, for example, be included in a second monitor that physically resides on the top of the base game. The bonus or second game is usually activated by a certain event happening at the base game to provide excitement of additional winnings or jackpots.
Over the years, casinos profited from slot machines more than their traditional table games to the point that more than 80% of casinos' revenues and profits are now from slot machines. Due to regulatory reasons, enhancements in casino slot machines based on computer technology advancement have been limited, at least in land based casinos. So far such enhancement has been limited to embedding a Random Number Generator (RNG) as well as the rules and graphics of a game into a microchip. This “gaming chip” is placed into a computer board that, for security and fraud control, is locked into a slot machine cabinet. The integrity of the slot machine is then approved by an independent gaming lab before the machine is placed into service on a casino's floor.
For timely reporting and fraud control purposes the industry has developed casino slot systems that interact with the various components included in a slot machine including, the gaming chip, the devices that accepts moneys, e.g., a coin acceptor, bill validator and/or ticket-in reader; the devices that disperses moneys, e.g., a hopper and/or ticket-out printer; an input device; configured to transmit the players selection to the gaming chip, such as a touch screen and/or a touch sensitive input device connected to the computer board; and the video game's display monitor.
Slot manufacturing is dominated by a handful of companies, the strict licensing and investigation process has created a high barrier of entry and a cozy environment for existing companies licensed to do business in regulated gaming markets. Despite the casino's pressure for system standardization, slot manufacturers have managed to keep their own proprietary systems. The only common protocol currently available is SAS, which interfaces with different manufacturers' slot machines to give the casinos a single reporting system for different manufacturers' machines.
Recently gaming regulations were introduced to address computer security and integrity of a gaming network allowing server based slot machines, where the RNG and the gaming content resides on the server and the slot machine is a simple computer terminal configured to allow access to and delivery of any game available on the server. None of the gaming manufacturers have, however, introduced server based gaming systems, because this will change their pricing model from selling high margin cabinets to content, a business model that they are not yet ready for.